This past week our small community felt the weight of a tragic avalanche accident claiming 5 lives at Loveland Pass.  Two of them were Crested Buttians. It hit hard in this town.

To some it might seem reckless to ski the backcountry, to ski the steeps.  We have been cautious of Northerly slopes in shallow snowpack zones all season.  My photos might perceive us as dangerous, but I will argue that we are very calculated with our decisions.  No one is immune to the unthinkable.  Climbing and skiing steep mountains certainly has risks, but we put a lot of careful thought and assessment into our choosing, approaching, and skiing each line.  That being said we thought a lot about the accident over the course of the trip and what we do in the mountains.

On Monday morning the forecast looked better, so we rallied for the big peaks.

Where are we going today?

Cumberland Basin it is.  We were wishing that we had a snowmobile for the approach.  The trade off is that if I could afford a truck, trailer, and a snowmobile, I probably would not have the time to set out on spontaneous ski adventures.

Start of our journey

Let the slog begin

Death Pass

Entering Cumberland

We set up camp feeling pretty over the sticky slog in.

El Campo

After a stormy night, we awoke in the clouds.  We figured we would hit a couloir while it was stormy and maybe it would clear in the afternoon to hit Castle South face.

Couloir hunting

Couloir Time!

Gendarme Cooli

After a great descent we started our march on the Castle.

It was a great climb to the summit with a fresh blanket of new snow.

Our posse on the summit

team orange

The turns down the upper chute were glorious.

Upper pitch of Castle

Scott takes the dog leg

Castle Apron

When we got to the bottom Zach pointed at the next mountain.  Up we went for line number 3 of the day.  After all, it would be cold and miserable at camp so we might as well keep skiing.  ”Chupacabra”

Skiiner

Topping out

Zach center-punches

Working the shadows

It was a fantastic powdery descent all the way to el campo.  It was cold so we ate a modest amount of freeze-dried food and got into our sleeping bags.

Cold Camp

It was a cold night above 11000 feet.  Everything froze.  Initially I was not stoked about 3 dudes squeezing into a 2 person tent, but it proved to be warm.

Everything is frozen!

We need to get back to Crested Butte and figured we would hit Teocalli on the way out.  We have been nervous about North faces in shallow snowpack zones all season so we picked our way in carefully still avoiding the loaded NorthEast.

Steep entrance

Scott Finds his way through the choke

Zach opens it up a bit

New line for me off of Teocalli.  The North Face of Teocalli is a ski mountaineers dream because it is litered with steep couloirs and cliffs.  We debated skiing another line but opted to head home satisfied.

walking on dirt

Awesome tour.  I feel grateful to have such skilled and competent ski partners here in Crested Butte.  Life is precious and skiing these peaks with good friends is living life at its fullest for me.

Cheers,

Chris

We had been noting that it has looked suitable to ski lately, and on Thursday night Zach made the call.

Pretty funny riding the bus to the ski resort with climbing ropes.

Bus to ski!

After some shenanigans skiing up the closed ski area, we prepped to drop from the Summit

Scott organizes the ropes

Zach drops in first

The first section was a pseudo sketchy sidestep on rock slab followed by a small drop into the chute.

The first section was a few inches of snow on rock slab, then a 4 foot drop into the chute

A brillant line

rope work

Scott rigs the anchor

Scott on the rappel

Evan is such a bad ass

Rappel

The line is from the summit down the face

Shit eating grins

Awesome line.  Really excited to ski an aesthetic line right off the summit of Mount Crested Butte that we look at everyday.

Cheers,

Chris

Enjoy the photo essay and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Chris

cheers,

chris

On Wednesday Zach and I hooked up to to ski a line that I skied about 5 years ago.  I believe it is called the “White Widow” or “Widowmaker.”  Regardless, the aesthetic couloir grabs your attention from Gothic.

Aerial View:

It is a sub-peak of White Rock that stands over 13,000 feet.  It sits in an area called “Queen Basin.”  We have not been in this zone much lately because it has a much shallower snowpack than the Rubies thus less stability.

We got a late start around noon because of obligations around town.  It is West facing so we figured that we could ski it at sunset, and ski home in the dark under the moon.

We skated to Gothic then broke trail up Copper Creek.  3 hours into the tour we break into the alpine.

It felt good to be back into the Elks.  This area is all Wilderness and rarely sees ski tracks.  

Back to what we do… climb couloirs.

Climbing through Mordor-esque twisted white rock

Summit at 6PM!

Zach dropping in

airing the rock step halfway down

Me, courtesy of Zach

Slashing a fin on the exit

Then some nice low-angle pow on the apron.

We glissed out our now frozen skin track in the valley to the Gothic townsite where we bumped into some friends that were staying the night at the Maroon hut for a birthday.  We hung out for a bit, had a beer, and headed back to Crested Butte under the moonlight.  9 hours all said and done, brilliant afternoon/evening tour!

Cheers,

Chris

Cheers,

Chris 

Cheers,

Chris 

Enjoy,

Chris

Tracks off of Afley Peak

On Thursday Zach and I headed up to ski a very aesthetic line in the Ruby Range, Afley Peak.  It’s massive South Face can be seen from Scarps Ridge and grabs your attention right away.  We sledded to Irwin and skinned over Scarps ridge.  A short descent and we were on the ascent.  Zach stops to investigate the structure of the snow

Digging a pit below the face

We were pretty happy with the 10 foot deep snowpack of the Ruby’s and pressed on higher.  We gained the summit ridge via a couloir that we were able to top out only because a Volkswagon Bus size cornice had vacated its seat.  The fact that this particular cornice tumbled down the slope we were skinning up with out triggering anything gave us confidence for being there.

Steep Skinner

After negotiating some windslab on climbers right of the couloir we chose to top out climbers left where it was nearly vertical powder.  I had to burry my arms into the slope to assure that I would not pop off and take an involuntary slide to the bottom.  

Topping out Couloir

Clouds were quickly moving in from the North so we raced up the ridge.  I lowered Zach into the face on a rope where he made one last snow assessment before we committed ourselves fully to this massive face.

I was not in a good angle for the best photo, but we were racing the clouds as a storm came in.  Its hard to capture the size of the face in a photograph with-out my fish-eye lens.

Center Punch

Another shot of our tracks on the upper face

Our Tracks

It skied great.  As soon as we got to the bottom the clouds rolled in.  Good timing.  We regained Scarps with the hope of skiing “Purple Ribbon”

Purple Ribbon

I broke trail in deep snow most of the way up the couloir and it simply got too deep and steep to progress in a forward manner.  I felt like a snowmobile that got stuck in deep snow and keep digging into a deeper hole while trying to get out.  Zach was able to make a rock move onto a rib and topped it out.

through the narrows

Purple Ribbon

Zach exits with a high speed straight-line

Straightline

It was a whiteout on the way back to the sled.  All and all super excited to ski Afley.  It is a big face that I have always dreamed of skiing.  Finding it in condition mid-winter is not something that is always available which makes it all the much more worth it.

Cheers,

Chris

Cheers,

Chris